Cast Set For LAND OF THE FREE at Southwark Playhouse Borough

Playing in the lead up to the most contentious American presidential election since the time of the Civil War, Land of The Free, will tell the full story for the first time in British theatre of the life of the actor John Wilkes Booth and how he came to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Booth's background is one of parental bullying, professional frustration, racism, populist politics and celebrity; a background intertwined with the very fabric of America, where anyone can rise to the greatest heights and where liberty must be defended at all costs. Combining live music and vibrant ensemble storytelling Simple8's tale of John Wilkes Booth and Abraham Lincoln captures the patchwork charm and peril of the United States, and spans the playhouses, parlours, swamps, taverns and battlefields of 19th Century America, examining a tumultuous present by visiting the past. 

The cast of seven is made up of Grammy nominee Brandon Bassir (Grapes of Wrath, National Theatre), co-founder of Immediate Theatre Clara Onyemere, Dan Wolff (Fiddler on the Roof, Regent's Park), founder member of Simple 8 Hannah Emanuel, Natalie Law (Leopoldstadt, Wyndham's), Sara Lessore (The Tempest, Globe), and Owen Oakeshott (Witness for the Prosecution, London County Hall).

The writers said: “Not only is it an extraordinary story, but a pertinent one. America has a history of policitical violence, exemplified by the recent assassination attempt on Donald Trump. And the issues from the  time of Booth and Lincoln – the fraying of institutions, racial justice, local vs federal government, freedom, immigration – are the same issues being fought over in America today.”

Twice winners of the Peter Brook Ensemble Award, Simple8 is a critically-acclaimed theatre ensemble who specialise in creating worlds out of nothing – producing innovative, bold new plays that tackle big ideas using large casts. They create new writing through extensive research and development, inspired by material that is rarely explored. Using a variety of techniques – poor theatre, mime, live music and song, puppetry and magic – Simple8 aim to put on new plays that are fun, inventive, original and daring.

Southwark Playhouse is a registered charity that delivers a year-round programme of entertaining and enriching work. Southwark Playhouse operates two separate venues, ‘Southwark Playhouse Borough' and its newest theatre ‘Southwark Playhouse Elephant' which opened in January 2023. Southwark Playhouse has always prided itself in telling stories and inspiring the next generation of storytellers and theatre makers, where support for the community has been rooted at the core of the organisation.